The new book recommends the publication of ＂Exploration and Research on the Layout and Divination Form of Oracle Bones with Characters in Yin Ruins＂.

Exploration and research on the drilling layout and divination form of word Oracle bones in Yin Ruins

(all two volumes)

By Zhao Peng

Published in April 2024

Content introduction

According to the materials of Oracle bones used for divination, that is, scapula, abdominal shell and dorsal shell, this book makes a comprehensive and systematic study on the drilling layout and divination forms of various types of Wang Oracle bones in the south and north of Yinxu Village, as well as various types of non-Wang Oracle bones. The evolution sequence of Oracle bone drilling layout in Yin Ruins is established, and the development track of Oracle bone divination form in Yin Ruins is analyzed. Interpret the layout of some characteristic Oracle inscriptions. This paper analyzes the influence of Oracle bone materials in the same group on the content and form of divination. This paper discusses the influence of Oracle bone staging, Oracle bone group, Oracle bone material, divination content and drilling layout on divination form.

Brief introduction of the author

Zhao Peng is a researcher at the Institute of Ancient History of China Academy of Social Sciences. His research interests are Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the history of Yin and Shang Dynasties, focusing on the arrangement and description of Oracle bones, the study of drilling layout and divination forms. He is the author of "A Preliminary Study on the Names and Dating of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins" (Wired Bookstore, 2007) and "A Collection of rubbings on Oracle Bones" (Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2016). Participated in the compilation of Oracle Bones Collected by the Historical Research Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences (edited by Song Zhenhao, Zhao Peng and Ma Ji Fan, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2011).

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(Huang Tianshu)

Zhao Peng, a researcher at China Historical Research Institute, recently finished the book "The Layout of Oracle Bones with Characters and the Exploration of Divination Forms in Yin Ruins". The author asked me to write a few words at the beginning. I am very happy. I would like to take this opportunity to talk about my own ideas on the layout of Oracle bones and the arrangement offered by Oracle Bone Inscriptions.

In recent ten years, the author has devoted himself to studying the drilling layout of Oracle bones. In my opinion, drilling layout is a very important research topic in Oracle divination. Although some scholars have done some research, there are still many problems to be solved. This book is the latest achievement of drilling layout research, and I hope it will be published as soon as possible.

A rough reading draft, I think this book has many advantages: first, comprehensively and systematically sort out and study the drilling layout, and summarize its evolution sequence and development vein. Second, the drilling layout is rich in materials, illustrated and easy to read. Third, it is advocated that the drilling layout should be comprehensively studied in combination with Oracle inscriptions and ordinal numbers. More importantly, this book has the following two main findings:

First, the layout of drilling affects the form of divination. For example, during the period of Zu Geng in Wu Ding, the tortoise shell of Cunbei system was not drilled, and the bovine scapula with a single drilling layout at the neck of the head bone usually used a complete set of divination forms.

Secondly, from the perspective of drilling layout and divination form, the South-Central School in the village is more closely related to the division group, which directly develops from the division group, and the North School in the village is likely to be a new or innovative series; The South-Central School of the village developed first and influenced the North School of the village. For example, the Central South Department of the village entered the stage of layout along the bone edge from the first group of the calendar, and the second group of the Northern Department of the village began to layout along the bone edge. The divination in which the focus of different links of the same event is arranged along the bone edge began to appear in the first class of the calendar group in the south-central part of the village, and it began to appear in the second class of the group in the north part of the village.

The study of drilling layout is a relatively cold corner in the field of Oracle bone inscriptions, and there are few related works. In the past, Oracle bone scholars mostly focused on the study of characters, and few people paid attention to the Oracle bone materials and their drilling layout attached to characters. In recent years, scholars have realized that Oracle Bone Inscriptions should be comprehensively studied from several sub-disciplines, such as Oracle divination (drilling layout under its jurisdiction), Oracle morphology, and Oracle Bone Inscriptions’s dedication. The core of Oracle inscriptions is "drilling" and "divination". Foreword, destiny, divination, preface and so on are all arranged and written around "drilling" and "divination" like the stars arch the moon. In my opinion, there is a drilling layout first, then a burning layout, and then a burning layout. The front and back sides of the large version of Oracle bones are often engraved with dozens of Oracle inscriptions. If scholars don’t understand the layout of drilling, burning and Oracle inscriptions, there will be problems in the Oracle bone inscriptions written.

On the reverse side of Oracle bones, there are artificial drills, the spindle is a chisel and the circle is a drill. The above is the preparation for divination. And burning drill is the beginning of divination. After burning, Cho Chien is chiseled and trillion branches are drilled. A passage from this book (page 49) to Mr. Tsung i Jao is very important. In 1961, Mr. Rao said in the article "A Study on the Yin People’s Concept of Numbers from the Count of Bu Zhao —— On the Number of Images of Turtles" (Collection of Papers Celebrating Mr. Dong Zuobin’s Sixty-Five Years Old): "There are four things on the tortoise shell, which keep a joint relationship, namely, the drilled hole on the back of the tortoise, the trillion images on the ventral surface after burning, and the numbers engraved in trillion positions, which are engraved with the engraving. I think Mr. Rao’s words can be summed up in eight words, namely, "drilling, omen, number and diction, four in one" The so-called "drilling" refers to "drilling". As we all know, there are very few people who drill first and then drill, but don’t drill. Oracle bone divination belongs to heat divination. The diviner burned the drill with the burning thorns, which made the front of the Oracle bone crack into a "Bu"-shaped divination. Each divination is composed of Cho Chien and Zhaozhi, which first comes from Cho Chien and then Zhaozhi. Chisel out the Cho Chien, which looks like a trunk and has the same shape; Drill out trillion branches, shaped like branches, in various shapes. Yin people mainly judge good or bad luck according to the shape of trillion branches. Therefore, the language of "drilling" is dominated by "drilling" and supplemented by "chisel", where "drilling" stands for "drilling". The so-called "omen" means that the reverse side is burning and the front side is ominous. The so-called "number" is the abbreviation of "ordinal number", which is also called "trillion sequence", "preface" or "trillion sequence".Record the number and order of divination. The so-called "ci" refers to the following nine parts: pre-ci, life-ci, occupation-ci, verification-ci, omen-ci, preface, diction, fu-ci and agency-ci. But not all divinations are recorded, but some parts are often omitted. The so-called "four-in-one" means that the four elements of "drill, omen, number and diction" should be arranged around "drill" and "omen" like the stars arch the moon.

Let’s take a complete edition of tortoise shell "Part C" 63-64 (Collection 12051) as an example to illustrate the "four in one". The biggest shortcoming of Mr. Zhang Bingquan’s Oracle Inscriptions in A Textual Research on Part C is that he wrote the four-in-one words separately, in other words, it did not well reflect the joint relationship between the drilling layout, augury, ordinal number and Oracle Inscriptions. The interpretation of Part C is self-evident, so I don’t want to quote it. In this paper, according to the new concept of "four in one", the interpretation of Part C 63-64 (Collection 12051) is rewritten in the following, and then elaborated. In order to facilitate reading, the interpretation of the text should use common words as much as possible.

(1) come to ten. (Carved on the reverse right nail bridge. "Lai Lai Shi" recorded that the turtles were paid by Dai Suo Gong Na, a total of ten)

(2) shell. (Carved on the left-hand side of the left-hand bridge. The "shell" is the name of Zhen, and it is recorded that the custodian of the repair gives the dug and drilled abdominal armor to Zhen’s shell to collect the palm for divination.

(3) Zhen: Liao Niu. (engraved on the reverse side) [1] 2 (engraved on the corresponding position on the front side)

(4) don’t burn. (engraved on the reverse side) ф (ф, which means that there is only a omen in the corresponding position of the front side, but the ordinal number is not engraved and the omen is committed. Here is another oracle that the omen infringes on the front side)

(5) Liao a cow. (engraved on the reverse side) 1 (engraved on the corresponding position on the front side)

(6) [Don’t burn a cow]. (There was no Oracle inscription on the reverse side, but it was supposed to be "Don’t burn a cow") One (the corresponding position on the front side is only Bu Zhao and the ordinal number "one". Bu Zhao and the ordinal number "one" are shown in the corresponding position of the second line of the front left front armor near Qianli Road)

(7) Liao Er Niu. (The reverse side above) ф (It is engraved in the corresponding position on the front side, which indicates the omen, but the ordinal number is engraved and the omen is made)

(8) Liao San Niu. (engraved on the reverse side) 1 (engraved on the corresponding position on the front side and making a sign)

(9) Zhen: The following year, Gui Wei (20) burned five cows. One two three four five (engraved on the front)

(10) Don’t burn five cows in the next year. One two three four five (engraved on the front)

(11) call. (engraved on the reverse side) 1 (engraved on the corresponding position on the front side and making a sign)

(12) Call for help, get it from the east first. (Engraved on the left front nail bridge) One, two, three (Engraved on the front left front nail and making a sign)

(13) Zhen: Call for help, get it first. (Engraved on the right-hand bridge) Four (Engraved on the front)

(14) Call for help first. (Engraved on the right-hand bridge) Five (Engraved on the front)

(15) jiachen (41),

Zhen: It rains today. (engraved on the front) One two three four (engraved on the front)

(16) jiachen (41),

Zhen: It won’t rain today. (engraved on the front) One two three two to four five (engraved on the front)

(17) Jia Chen (41) Bu,

Zhen: The next day (42) its rain. (engraved on the front) One two three four (engraved on the front)

(18) Zhen: The next day (42) it didn’t rain. (engraved on the front) One two three four (engraved on the front)

(19) Zhen: The following day did not (44) rain. (engraved on the front) One, two, three (engraved on the front)

(20) Zhen: The next day Ding Wei (44) did not rain. (engraved on the front) One, two, three small notices (engraved on the front)

(21) it

It’s not just worrying about Zu Yi. (engraved on the reverse side) 0 (engraved on the corresponding position on the front side, with omen but no ordinal number engraved and making omen)

（22）

Yu zuyi. (engraved on the reverse side) 0 (engraved on the corresponding position on the front side, with omen but no ordinal number engraved and making omen)

(1)(2) is an official statement, which records the origin of Oracle bones and the person who drilled them, and delivered them to the Zhen people’s shell for control after drilling them. In order not to interfere with divination, the inscription is generally engraved on the edge without drilling. (1)(2) The inscription is immediately on the opposite side of the nail bridge.

According to the principle of "the kind (event) follows each other, according to the omen (drilling)", there are four types of Oracle inscriptions on the front and back of this edition of tortoise shell: the first category (3) to (10) divination "Liaoniu". (3) "Liao Niu" and (4) "Don’t Liao" are against chastity. (5) "Liao a cow" and (6) "[Don’t Liao a cow]" are also against chastity. (7) to (10) It is appropriate to choose a few cows for chastity. The second category (11) to (14) divination "Gunnar". The third category (15) to (20) divination "weather". The fourth category (21) to (22) divination sacrifice "Zu Yi".

In recent years, after the establishment of Oracle bone divination, drilling layout can be included in Oracle bone divination for research. With the improvement of photography and printing technology, there are high-definition color photos of Oracle bones, and the color photos can be enlarged in the computer to observe the drilling layout. The conditions for studying Oracle divination (including drilling layout) and Oracle morphology have been greatly improved. It is hoped that the reverse side of Oracle bones will be recorded in the Oracle bone description books published in the future, so as to facilitate the study of the drilling layout of Oracle bones and better understand the Oracle bone inscriptions.

Huangtianshu

Tsinghua campus, October 3, 2023

Foreword

This book makes a comprehensive and systematic study on the drilling layout and divination forms of all kinds of word Oracle bones in Yin Ruins according to the materials, initially establishes the evolution sequence of drilling layout of Oracle bones in Yin Ruins, roughly combs the development vein of divination forms in Yin Ruins, and interprets some characteristic Oracle inscriptions layout.

The introduction part defines the concept of drilling in this book, the research content and significance of this book, and reviews the previous studies, and puts forward that the current study of Oracle bone drilling layout should be combined with Oracle bone group, trillion sequence arrangement, Oracle composition, Oracle bone layout, divination and so on to carry out a more in-depth and detailed study.

The first chapter to the fourth chapter combs the drilling layout, characteristic Oracle inscriptions layout and divination form of the Jia bones of Yin Ruins Division Group, Village Central South System, Village North System and Non-Wang Group. It is pointed out that the layout of scapula drilling in Cunnan system began to enter the layout stage along the bone edge (that is, a row of mortar edges and a half rows along the opposite side), while in Cunbei system, it was an independent layout of the bone head and neck in the early stage, and it began to be arranged along the bone edge (that is, a row of mortar edges and a half rows along the opposite side) after the second class. It is pointed out that the drilling layout of the middle-south system in the village is more closely related to the scapula of the division, and it is directly developed from the division, while the drilling layout of the northern system in the village is likely to be a new or innovative series for the scapula of the division. The Jiagu of the Central South System in the village is bounded by the second class of the calendar group, with more divination before and one divination after. The northern part of the village is bounded by the class of guests, with many words before and one word after. The two divination forms basically entered the stage of one word and one divination at the same time. The divination in which the focus of different links of the same event in one day is arranged along the bone edge began to appear in the middle and south part of the village, and this divination form began to appear in the second part of the village. No matter from the layout of drilling or the composition of divination in different aspects of the same event in a day, the development of divination in the Central South School of Village is earlier than that in the Northern School of Village, and it is the Central South School of Village that has influenced the Northern School of Village.

The fifth chapter to the seventh chapter combs the layout of drilling, the layout of characteristic oracles and the form of divination on the division group of Yin Ruins, the village north system and the non-king’s abdomen armor. It is pointed out that the drilling of the abdominal nail in the division group has a messy layout and the burning direction is uncertain. The Cunbei system is bounded by the guest-out class, and the drilling layout in the early stage is diversified, including three categories: sparse, dense and sparse-dense mixed. The second group and He group are basically the main two-column layout, and the one near Jiaqiao has burning on the outside of drilling, while the Huang group is the main two-column or three-column dense layout. In the form of divination, the layout of drilling was greatly influenced in the early stage, and different drilling layouts used different forms of divination. In the later period, it was basically a word.

Chapters 8 to 10 sort out the drilling layout and divination form of the division group, the village north system and the non-king’s back armor. It is pointed out that the dorsal nail has a messy layout in the division group and the burning direction is uncertain. There are two or three rows of dense layout in the Bin Formation in the north of the village, and one row of drilling layout will be added after leaving the formation. The form of divination is bounded by the category of object, with many words in the early stage and one word in the later stage.

In the southern part of the village, the Jia bone is basically used for divination, while in the northern part of the village, the tortoise bone is used together. The reason why the division group is studied separately as a chapter is to find out the relationship between the division group and the village south school and the village north school. The conclusion is that the relationship between the division group and the Oracle bones of the village south system is closer, and the development of the same system can be found, while the relationship between the village north system and the division group is obviously far away.

The drilling layout and divination form on non-Wang Oracle bones are different from the norms of Wang Oracle bones in the period. Except for the afternoon group, divination is mostly within three divinations. The drilling layout of Huadong Oracle bones is relatively simple and dense, but the divination form is free and flexible, which is not restricted by the drilling layout.

Chapter 11 discusses the role of drilling layout in Oracle bone conjugation and classification.

Chapter 12 discusses the influence of different materials in the same group of Oracle bones on the content and form of divination.

Chapter 13 discusses the influence of Oracle bone staging, Oracle bone group, Oracle bone material, divination content and drilling layout on divination form. It is pointed out that the forms of Oracle bone divination in Yin Ruins are diverse and constantly developing, which is the most active and prosperous period of thermal divination.

Postscript

Seventeen years have passed since my doctor graduated in 2006. In the past 17 years, more invalid time has been used, while some effective time has been tight and tight, and some have been rushed and rushed.

After graduating from Ph.D., I wanted to finish sorting out all the names of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, analyze some phenomena of names, make further corrections and supplements to the previous mistakes, and imagine that it can be extended to the study of the official system of Yin Shang Dynasty. However, after some study and work experience, the original plan was changed and more attention was paid to the layout of Oracle bone drilling.

From September, 2007 to June, 2008, Mr. Li Xueqin opened a course on Oracle bones in Tsinghua University, and many students and scholars from Beijing attended. In the course of studying this school year, one of my gains is to realize more deeply that Oracle bones are relics of divination. Thinking about many problems of Oracle bones should leave a perspective of divination.

In 2008, I participated in the research group of Three Editions of Oracle Bone Inscriptions Collection, and I was responsible for the combination and arrangement of Oracle bones in Part B, Part C and Supplement B. In the process of splicing and pasting the fragments of the rubbings of Part B, the signs on the front and the drills on the back attracted my attention. The reverse rubbings after spelling are sorted and sorted one by one, and the result is the article "Preliminary sorting and research on drilling and mega-sequence arrangement of tortoise shell of Kengbin Formation YH127 in Yin Ruins" which participated in the Second Youth Forum of Ancient Philology of Shiyu Institute in 2016. After further streamlining, it was published in the Journal of Archaeology (2017).

In 2010, together with Mr. Song Zhenhao and Mr. Ma Ji Fan, we sorted out the Oracle bones collected by the Historical Research Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences. In the process of finishing, I am responsible for taking photos, sorting all Oracle bones and interpreting texts. When interpreting texts, the principle of proximity is basically used to deal with the attribution of mega-words, so the attribution of mega-words in the book Zhong Li Cang is basically wrong, and this responsibility lies with me alone.

In 2012, I was fortunate to attend the 19th annual meeting of China Ancient Characters Research Association hosted by Fudan University, which was the first time in my life to attend the annual meeting of China Ancient Characters. At the meeting, Mr. Wang Zewen published the article "Supplement to the Oracle Inscriptions Collected in the Far East Antiquities Museum in Stockholm, Sweden" and related descriptions, which made me realize that my previous treatment of the inscription may be wrong. After the meeting, I began to sort out the inscription position of mega-words on a version of Oracle bones, and came to the conclusion that mega-words are above mega-branches, while mega-words are below mega-branches (of course, there are also mega-words above Cho Chien, and mega-words outside Cho Chien, etc.), so mega-words should be written after the mega-numbers above mega-branches, not after the nearest mega-words. Before and at that time, many scholars’ cognition of the attribution of mega-words was correct. Only my poor studies have caused great mistakes and may spread to others. So far, I am ashamed.

The concern about mega-words has aroused my concern about mega-ordinal numbers. In 2012, I began to sort out the arrangement of Oracle bones in each group. When sorting out the abdominal carapace of the yellow group turtle, it was found that there were some phenomena in which the number of the right abdominal carapace was "one" and the left abdominal carapace was "two". Once Mr. Li Xueqin attended a meeting of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2013), I found an opportunity to ask Mr. Li about this phenomenon. Mr. Li said that this is interesting and can be sorted out. This has strengthened my confidence in sorting out and studying this problem.

In 2012, he assisted in taking photos of Oracle bones in Lushun Museum and Chongqing Three Gorges Museum, and in 2014, he assisted in taking more than 2,000 photos of Oracle bones in Shandong Museum. In the process of assisting in taking these photos, I have a more intuitive understanding of the drilling layout. Looking back now, whether the photos you see are page by page or one by one may have different trigger points for people.

In May 2017, I joined the working group of "Oracle Bone Inscriptions Manuscript Series". This work gives me a chance to sort out Oracle bone materials more comprehensively, and on this basis, I pay more attention to and think about it, and my understanding of Oracle bone drilling layout and divination form is more perfect than before.

In 2008, Mr. Li Xueqin published the article "The Expansion of Oracle Inscriptions on Di Xin’s Expatriates" in the Research on the History of China, arguing that the Zhongnan and Cunbei lines of Jiagu Village in Yin Ruins ended separately, so it is unnecessary to merge into one line. Another thought brought to me by this article is how the two departments started. In 2019, I was fortunate to be invited by Mr. Lin Hongming to give an academic lecture on "Deep Wave Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Yin Shang Civilization" at Taiwan Province University of Political Science. In the preparation of the lecture, I first compared the drilling layout of the scapula of the northern system of the village with that of the central and southern system of the village. The result of comparison is that the drilling layout of the division group’s scapula is a series with the south of the village, but far from the north of the village.

In 2020, Master Huang Tianshu first put forward the branch field of Oracle divination in He Hui’s Preface to the Study of Oracle Inscriptions on Tortoise Abdomen. On July 8, 2022, Master Huang Tianshu gave a lecture entitled "Oracle divination" in the famous forum of ancient Chinese characters in NTU, which further improved the theoretical framework of Oracle divination. The proposition of "Oracle bone divination" makes the research of this topic have the support and ownership.

In short, the arrangement of Oracle bone materials, the shooting of Oracle bone photos, the reflection on my own wrong cognition, the study and exchange, the development of disciplines, etc., are all the reasons why I keep thinking about the drilling layout.

There are two more points about this book: First, the layout of drilling is closely related to the form of divination. Different drilling layouts may lead to different forms of divination. When the layout of drilling changes, the form of divination will basically change. The second is about the "two columns" drilling layout. The core reason why we don’t classify the "one row and half rows on the opposite side of the scapula" and the "multiple ring sparse type" on the tortoise shell as the "two rows" drilling layout is that the divination group has different divination thinking and divination use for these two drilling layouts, which also reflects their different divination thoughts. Our cognition should be as close as possible to the ideas and practices of the divination group.

Since 2008, it has been fifteen years since we began to pay attention to drilling and mega-sequence. Although the drilling layout seems to be a problem that can be solved in a short time, there will always be some points in fifteen years to promote us to think about this problem repeatedly or have new thinking. Now that it is about to be published, I hope that the problems revealed in the book, such as the layout of drilling, the form of divination, the layout of Oracle inscriptions and the relationship between the two systems, can be close to the truth of history. But the truest feeling in my heart is fear, fear of misreading the practice of ancestors’ divination, fear that there must be some superficial, inaccurate and incomplete cognition, and that every version of Oracle bones has not been carefully arranged from the perspective of divination …

Finally, I would like to thank Master Huang Tianshu for his training and urging, and to preface my book. Thanks to Li Xueqin, Song Zhenhao, Liu Zhao, Li Zongkun, Dong Shan, Lin Hongming, Fang Zhisong, Wang Zewen, Zhang Ang and others who gave me advice, care and help along the way. Thanks to the five judges of the National Social Science Fund for their comments on revision. Thanks to Ms. Gu Lidan and Editor Yao Minghui of Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House for their efforts in publishing this book. Thank my mother for her help and care in my life.

November 8, 2023

Shuying

Original title: "The new book recommended the publication of" Exploration and Research on the Layout and Divination Form of Oracle Bones with Characters in Yin Ruins "

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